Andrew l



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW L. HILL,OF DECATUR, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOE, TO CHARLES H. BROWN,

OF SAME PLACE.

METALLIC .TENON FOR'BLlND-SLATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0.'224=,908, dated February 24, 1880. Application filed January 6, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ANDREW L. HILL, of Decatur, in the county of Macon and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful 1 1o fication, in which- Figure 1 represents, in perspective, a wood slat having my improved tenons. Fig. 2 represents the same in longitudinal section, with one of the tenons in position to be secured to, I 5 the slat and the other clasping it. Fig. 3 represents, in perspective, one of the tenons. My invention relates to metallic tenons to I be attached to woodenslats of window-blinds.

The tenons of wooden blind-slats are gen- 2 erally made of the same material in one piece with the slat-an operation that requires much time if done by hand or the use of machinery, entailing also waste of material. To obviate this tenons'have sometimes been made of sheet 5 metal, requiring various operations in their formation and attachment to slats.

The object of my invention is to provide a metallic tenon for wood slats of blinds, either for new ones or to replace a wooden tenon that 3 has been broken off or injured, without requiring the removal of one of the side bars of the frame, and thus retaining a uniformity in the color or shade of the slats by thus repairing the original slat.

My invention consists in a wooden-slat tenon made in one piece of malleable iron or other metal, having a solid cylindrical end, with two prongs pointed. and bent so as to enter the wood otithe slat and I be fastened thereto by 4 pressing or closi-ngeach prong toward the other with pinchers or other means at one operation, as will be hereinafter more fully described.

In thedrawings, A represents a wood slat for blinds, having both ends cut square across to receive the metallic tenon. This tenon has a solid end, at, either cylindrical. or slightly conical, and two prongs, a, to receive the end of the slat between them. Each pron gis pointed and bent at m to engage in thewood of the slat when they are pressed toward each other. For this purpose the prongs are cast diverging from the solid end, and the bend near the end, at a is made either while being cast or afterward, when they have been rendered malleable. The slat, if too thick, can be recessed or pressed to receive the tenon but the latter is generally form ed so as to he applied to the end of the slat without any preparation for it.

This tenon has been found very convenient for repairing blinds having broken teuons by inserting the iron tenon into the socket, placing the slat between the prongs, and pressing the latter with pinchers. I

New blinds manufactured with iron tenons are very durable, as the tenon will not swell or break, .and with this tenon the slats can be made cheaper than formerly.

The tenon is shown in the drawings with two prongs only; but it is evident thatit may have three or four without departing from the spirit'of my invention, so long as the form of each prong is as shown and described.

I am well aware that I am not the first to employ a metal tenon in connection with window-slats, and shall therefore claim my specific construction possessing, as it does, superior advantages over anything of the kind hitherto known so far as I am acquainted.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim- In combination with a wood slat, a tenon made in one piece of malleable iron, having a solid cylindrical or conical end and pointed prongs to receive between them the end of the 8 5 slat and enter the .wood one on each side of the slat by pressure, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

ANDREW L. HILL.

Witnesses:

O. L. WAGGONER, J. I BEAR. 

